News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
[I give links to the proceedings of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal
and a study of them in an article here:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article4079.html
It is very readily apparent why the Bush administration does not find
its existing cases against the prisoners in Guantanamo adequate.
--DC]
http://tinyurl.com/5w7pjk
APNewsBreak: US asks to rewrite detainee evidence
By MATT APUZZO
WA****NGTON (AP) — The Bush administration wants to rewrite the official
evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees, allowing it to shore up its
cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first
time.
The government has stood behind the evidence for years. Military review
boards relied on it to justify holding hundreds of prisoners
indefinitely without charge. Justice Department attorneys said it was
thoroughly and fairly reviewed.
Now that federal judges are about to review the evidence, however, the
government says it needs to make changes.
The decision follows last week's Supreme Court ruling, which held that
detainees have the right to challenge their detention in civilian court,
not just before secret military panels. At a closed-door meeting with
judges and defense attorneys this week, government lawyers said they
needed time to add new evidence and make other changes to evidentiary
do***ents known as "factual returns."
Attorneys for the detainees criticized the idea, saying the government
is basically asking for a last-minute do-over.
"It's sort of an admission that the original returns were defective,"
said attorney David Remes, who represents many detainees and attended
Wednesday's meeting. "It's also an admission that the government thinks
it needs to beef up the evidence."
Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin declined to comment on the plan.
The discussions were confirmed by several attorneys and officials who
attended or were briefed on the meeting with the judges and defense
lawyers.
"It's a totally fishy maneuver that suggests that the government wants,
at the 11th hour, to get its ducks in a row," said Jonathan Hafetz, an
attorney representing several detainees. He was briefed on the plan.
The do***ents include the government's accusations and summaries of the
evidence that was presented to the military review panel. The records
were filed in federal court in many detainee cases in 2004 and 2005,
before Congress stripped those courts of the authority to hold hearings.
Detainees' attorneys who have reviewed the records criticized much of
the evidence as hearsay cobbled together from bounty hunters and border
guards who accused people of being terrorists in exchange for reward
money.
At Guantanamo Bay, the traditional rules of evidence do not apply in
trials run by the military. In a Wa****ngton federal courtroom, they would.
The government wants to submit new records, which would allow it to add
new intelligence and expand its reasoning for holding the detainees.
Since the hearings will decide whether the detainees are lawfully being
held now — not whether they were lawfully being held over the past
several years — the government wants to provide the court its newest,
best evidence.
[This is a good reminder of the fact that once the government has
labeled prisoners "enemy combatants", this "determination" can never be
reversed. The prisoners can only be found to "no longer" be "enemy
combatants".--DC]
It will be up to federal judges to decide whether the Justice Department
can rewrite those do***ents.
The question is part of a broader dispute over what the upcoming
hearings will look like. Attorneys for the detainees want judges to
review all the evidence and decide whether each prisoner should be
released. The government believes the judges should look only at limited
evidence prepared by officials at Guantanamo Bay.
[This bears emphasis.--DC]
That's why defense attorneys are troubled by the idea that authorities
now want to rewrite that evidence. If the court limits arguments to just
the government's record, and gives the government a chance to improve
that record, they believe the detainees' chances will be hurt.
"They're not just talking about making a little supplement where they've
learned something new," said attorney Charles H. Carpenter, who was in
the meeting. "They're talking about possibly amending every single one."
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/2gcoqt
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
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